Is it just me…or has anyone else taken a look at what’s going on with the young people in America these days? I am working on a culture observation project for a Youth Ministries course and I’ve been forced to take a look at some things I’ve been turning a blind eye to for far too long. Many of these young people are traveling on the fast track down the broad road and we’re just letting them go.

Why don’t we put up more of a fight?

I don’t know. It almost seems as though we say within ourselves–“It’s not my job.” I’m here to tell you right now that if you are a born again, Spirit-filled and led Christian it is your job! Take a look at what Scripture records about Jesus in Matthew 9: 35-37 (KJV)

“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;”

We are to have a heart like Jesus–we who have the Truth must share it with this generation.

Pray for the youth –their journey into eternity could be one heart beat away

Share the love of Jesus with the youth–they wont care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Preach the Truth of the gospel to the youth. It is the gospel of Truth that the Holy Spirit of God uses to convict man of his sin. Preach the Word be instant in season and out.

Love the youth. Use your giftings and ministry to show forth the love of Christ. Be a blessing whenever and however you can.

Like this:

“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain:

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 40: 4 KJV

What a marvelously immeasurable and precious gift of promise the believer in Christ has from God the Father: the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together! For the Christian, the glory of God is nearer still as he is Jesus Christ, the Son of God in whom all the Godhead dwells bodily. I don’t think we spend nearly enough time in our daily lives grasping the revelation of God’s glory to us through Christ His only begotten Son.

Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of preparing the way for the Lord. What if we did this daily through our seeking after him and worship lifestyle choices. Maybe our crooked place might be a sinful habit that needs to be made straight through repentance or perhaps there is un-confessed sin in our lives that is hindering our fellowship with God. Let’s take some time to cleanse our hands so that we might be in right relationship to meet and commune with God. As we ascend unto the mountain up to God’s holy place through thanksgiving and praise and through the worship of Christ Jesus, we will come closer and closer to the place where He dwells; this is the place where his glory is revealed.

Maybe you’re asking what God means by His revealed glory? Or, who or what is being revealed? Glory actually means ‘heaviness’ or ‘weight.’ The glory of God is His fullness, power, significance and magnificence. The word ‘reveal’ means to make known or to disclose. In Ezekiel chapter 43, we read about another encounter he has with the Glory of the Lord, whose voice is as a noise of many waters. He writes in his description that the Earth shined with His glory. John describes the voice of Jesus in the same way three times in the book of Revelation. (See Revelation 1:15, 14:6, 19:6). From these passages we can see that Jesus is the revealed Glory of God and as such He makes known the Father. This truth was made clear in Jesus’ exchange with Thomas in John 14:5-7, “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” How marvelous in Christ we know the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

King David worshiped God in the freedom of the tabernacle and his prayer was that God “take not His holy Spirit” from him. Our desire, as we seek after the presence of God and press through to intimacy and communion with Him in His Glory, should be to dwell forever right there, in His presence. But, how do you stay in the presence of God? Do we stay with Him and in Him through work or tears or songs? No, not at all; in fact it is through an act of the will called worship that we are able to live and breathe and have our being in Him. Don’t be confused by some who promote emotional appeals to God or ritualistic behaviors in order to move God. It is not a matter of emotion at all; staying in God’s presence, where His Glory dwells, is an act of the will to commit to God. As surely as one chooses to honor a wedding vow, the Believer chooses to seek after God’s Glory and to stay in His presence because of love, desire, obedience and worship.

Ezekiel saw the Glory of God. In Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 23 he records: “Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.” How do we know this was God? In chapter 1 verse 1 Ezekiel refers to who he saw at the river Chebar. “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” (KJV)

Many years later the Apostle John records in John 1 verse 14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (KJV) Jesus Christ is the revealed Glory of God. Glory to God!